a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  4319 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Data Storage in DNA Becomes a Reality

I know one guy who is using DNA for cryptography. They're working on locks that you will only be able to open by providing the proper sample.

I know another guy who is using DNA for biological warfare. they're working on diseases that will only kill you.

The terror scenario of course is not being able to kill one person, or one family. It's the ability to kill, say, only Ashekanazi Jews...





thundara  ·  4318 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    They're working on locks that you will only be able to open by providing the proper sample.

Gonna call wasted time on this one. What's the benefit? If anything, it's easier to find a skin flake or a lock of one's hair (Or a saliva sample in more romantic scenarios), than it is to steal a key off of a person. And I at least notice when my keys are gone.

Thumb-print locks are already just as uniquely identifying, likely less expensive, easier to maintain, more efficient, and still nowhere near worth it over a metal lock and key.

joelg236  ·  4319 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm no genetic expert, but do races actually have that distinguishable DNA that they can be targeted? I'm sure on a much more general scale it's possible (ex. small pox vs. native americans), but a specific culture seems like a stretch.

kleinbl00  ·  4319 days ago  ·  link  ·  

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/11/hacking-...

The reason Africans get more sickle-cell anemia is because it's a side-effect of blood evolved to be more resistant to malaria. Some asians flush when they're drunk, others don't. There's all sorts of individuality that has a physiological component.

user-inactivated  ·  4319 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    The terror scenario of course is not being able to kill one person, or one family. It's the ability to kill, say, only Ashekanazi Jews...

This has got to be the worst side effect of mapping the genome that I can think of. It never occurred to me how we're doing the supremacists and those inclined to genocides a rather large service.

Do you have any links or anything about either of those examples I could read?

kleinbl00  ·  4319 days ago  ·  link  ·  
user-inactivated  ·  4319 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hacking the President's DNA... And here I was getting all excited about the future of science. Nuts.

Appreciate the links, thanks.

kleinbl00  ·  4319 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Do NOT get curious about biological warfare.

My PSA for the day.